Robin Hood Gardens

Christian 胡萝卜男
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Robin Hood Gardens
Robin Hood Gardens

Robin Hood gardens

I'd read about Brutalism in connection with a project about architecture
at my school sponsored by the MI5, and by the time I'd finished the
project, the style, the ideas it was based on, as well as the issues
around it had captivated me. Especially the demolition of Pimlico School
and the debate about the fate of Robin Hood gardens were inspiring to me,
so when I was commissioned to do a comic by publisher 'Aben Maler' I
decided to use the opportunity to investigate further into the site and
document a debate around it, a debate where it was hard to delineate what
is fact and fiction.

In order to succeed in these two respects I felt I had to disentangle
myself from the biases of the very opinionated debate. To do this I set up
my own parameters~to judge the merits of the architecture by, based my own
observations on living in London.
An example of an observation that informed the comic would be the short
hand I used to determine how livable the flats were, for instance making a
note of how people made use of their balconies. In many London estates
they're used like spare rooms: packed with old clothes, bikes, storage
boxes, or even the washing machine.
In Robin Hood gardens on the other hand, you only saw the occasional line
with washing, which led me to conclude that the flats there are spacious
and not overcrowded. This strategy plus trying to deal with both the
architecture itself and the debate around it resulted in the comic
becoming an interesting, but slightly confusing read.

If asked to extend beyond the findings put to paper in the comic I'd say
that doing well in comparison with an average council flat is hardly an
argument for being great architecture worth saving.

One of the new ideas Robin Hood gardens brought with it was the 'streets
in the sky' -a board walk way that extends the length of the buildings on
every floor and which were conceived to mimic the terrace house street and
inspire a sense of community.~
Having a front door on street level is not desirable in the East End of
today, on two occasions friends of mine have had their door kicked in and
their flats robbed. That said there is a sense of community in Robin Hood
gardens, perceptible the minute you get there and that can do a lot to
remedy potential down sides of this design.

Most of all, Robin Hood gardens leave me with an impression of being built
on visionary ideas conceived a long time ago about a future that never
materialized. This is perhaps its most redeeming feature and the best
argument for listing it, so it can inspire others. In June around the same
time as the comic came out, Robin Hood gardens was the subject of an
exhibition at RIBA organized by the 20. Century, who advocates the listing
of RHG. James Goggin, representative of the vanguard of London graphic
designers did the exhibition design and~set the catalogue in his in vogue,
sans serif version of courier, thus underlining that RHG is now very much
a cause célèbre, so a listing by popular demand isn't unrealistic.

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Taken on: November 30, 2008
Tags: Everybody's photos tagged with robin hood gardens robin hood gardens Everybody's photos tagged with Blackwell Blackwell Everybody's photos tagged with Brutalism Brutalism
Sets appears in:   • Architecture   
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